ARTICLES ABOUT NEW BOARD BY DATE - PAGE 3

Two new board members are coming to Hampton Roads Transit on Thursday. Will Moffett, a Hampton City Councilman and Hampton Vice Mayor George Wallace will join the board. They've both served as alternates in the past. Moffett will replace longtime board member Grace Routten, a past chairwoman who was the last citizen-member of the board. The board is now entirely comprised of elected officials. Wallace replaces former Hampton City Councilman Paige V. Washington. It's a turn-point for HRT as the transit agency has gained prominence with expanded service and a pricey light-rail project in Norfolk.

Pricilla Burnett, a new Newport News School Board membe — at a special meeting of the board Thursday night — expressed her wish for more public discussion of issues before the board and that she wants more of its meetings televised. Burnett and fellow board member Betty Dixon had called the meeting partially because of their concerns about a recently approved contract for Newport News Public Schools legal adviser Len Wallin. In June the School Board unanimously approved Wallin as the district's executive director for legal services, which transferred him from the city attorney's office to the school division.

The Board of Supervisors shot down a proposal Tuesday night that would have opened the door to parasailing on the York River. Rudee Inlet Parasailing's proposal was quickly upended when the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted not to approve a permit that would have allowed the operation to be based in Yorktown at the Watermen's Museum. In October, the county Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend the plan for approval. The vote came after 12 public hearing speakers - most of whom are residents of Yorktown - derided the Virginia Beach company's plan as nothing less than an attack on the area's historic heritage.

There is a new face at the Christopher Newport University Board of Visitors table. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine appointed John Conrad of Richmond to replace outgoing board member Jerry Passaro of Williamsburg. A trial attorney for more than 27 years and president of The Conrad Firm, Conrad served 12 years on the Richmond City Council and was vice mayor. He left the council at the end of June 2000 after declining to run for a fourth term. He was one of the founding members of the Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic development agency, and served on the Richmond School Board education advisory committee.

Suffolk 60 Care has its Board of Directors for the next year Elected president, Ashley Owen Greene served as vice president last year and was one of the founding steering committee members. "I am honored to serve Suffolk 60 Care as its president for 2008-2009," said Greene. "The women of this organization are extremely dedicated, talented and committed. I am proud to call myself a member of S60C, and so proud of these women and the work they have accomplished for the Suffolk community.

It's far too easy to break down the political mess in Gloucester into a simple story about a county, a board, a pastor and his chair. But it's also too fun not to try. Numerous Board of Supervisors' e-mails dating over the last couple of months were sent to the press recently. Contained therein is a backstory of dysfunction, power plays, bruised feelings, a bad back and raw ego. While the overall issues of this board are broad and deep and the protagonists are all seven members, one supervisor stands out, in particular because nearly all those released e-mails involve him. THE PASTOR Gregory Woodard squeaked into office last November.

New board will sort out finances The Gloucester Board of Supervisors' release of County Administrator Bill Whitley and County Attorney Danny Stuck mirrored practices in government and private industry practiced for 20 years. I know two associates who were escorted from the building and not allowed to collect their personal belongings within the past two years. The new board received its direction for change from the voters to bring accountability in budgets and spending back into Gloucester County government.

Bobby R. Edwards has missed only one School Board meeting in the past two years - he had a Ruritan Club meeting that night he just couldn't skip. So the school bus driver and devoted meeting attendee is a veteran of the heated disagreements, under-the-breath comments, background feuding and personal fights that make up the unexpectedly rough-and-tumble politics of the Isle of Wight County School Board. And when newcomers to board meetings walk out afterward, shocked by what they've seen, he's the one there to talk them through it. "People would come out because they were interested in the one issue, and they would be there for hours," he said.

When James City's newly elected Republican majority takes over in January, things are going to change, and fast. With Stonehouse voters replacing left-leaning independent Andy Bradshaw with his Republican rival Jim Kennedy, and Berkeley and Roberts districts staying Republican, James City voters have given the Board of Supervisors a mandate for certain changes, party leaders say. The first thing likely to be thrown overboard in 2008 is...

The Colonial Williamsburg leader is named to the group that is determining the Army post's future. Rex M. Ellis, an expert in 17th- century American history as vice president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, will be asked to change that focus by at least 100 years as a member of the new Fort Monroe Federal Area Development Authority. Ellis, named to the board by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Wednesday as an expert on heritage tourism, is joined by another Kaine appointee, Catharine M. Gilliam, state program manager of the National Parks Conservation Association.